Creation Records Founder Alan McGee Starts New Label

Alan McGee, the legendary Scottish entrepreneur who discovered Oasis and founded the celebrated British label Creation Records, is back in the game. McGee has teamed with British independent music firm Cherry Red Records to launch the new label, 359 Music.

McGee had walked away from the record business after his Poptones venture was dissolved in 2007, instead focusing on his DJing, writing and living the good life in rural Wales.

In a statement, however, McGee explains that his five-year stint in the country had him “reinvigorated by new music again” and from which “there has been much talk about how I will return to music.” Also, he cites his long-term friendship with Cherry Red’s chairman Iain McNay as a catalyst for starting another indie label — though he admits he’d originally planned to do a deal with major label backing in Japan. “But when it came down to it I realized that I didn’t want to come back to music through a major music label – that’s not what I want to be part of,” McGee says. “That’s when I had a chat with Iain McNay from Cherry Red and we quite quickly put our heads together and developed between us a much better deal for 359 Music which will be a joint venture with Cherry Red. The first ever person to ever approach me about music when I was 19 was Iain McNay from Cherry Red.”